Seafood Porridge [Little Trick, Big Different]

Weather is getting colder as winter approaching it means more hot food on our dining table now. We often have steamboat for dinner and soupy stuff like ramen and porridge for lunch. I really appreciate a bowl of piping hot ramen, even the instant one, on a cold day. Not sure if I have influenced my boys, especially the little one, he seemed happy when noodle was served and ate contentedly.

When we had leftover sashimi the other day, I thought of using it in noodles dish but there was lazy to make a trip to the supermarket just for noodles. Thus, I cooked my favourite seafood porridge. Sean (3y2m) smelled and had a small bite first, and finished the whole bowl eventually. 

In fact, Japanese also eat porridge (おかゆ, read as okayu), plain porridge with ume boshi (preserved plum) for patients. When my mil had seafood porridge for the first time she was surprised to find something inside and kept telling me it was delicious. Smooth porridge with fresh seafood, who does not like it?

Seafood Porridge / 海鲜粥 / 海鮮おかゆ

Ingredients (2 servings):

• 1 bowl cooked rice (heap)
• 7-8 slices assorted sashimi, cut into smaller pieces
• 1 tsp corn starch, combine with 3 tsp water to make a solution
• 2-3 slices ginger
• Hon-dashi to taste
• Konbu shio (kelp flavoured salt) to taste
• 1 stalk spring onion, chopped (for garnish, optional)

Method:

1. Bring  1 litre of water to a boil, add in rice and cook porridge with low heat. 
2. When the desired consistency is obtained, add in some hon-dashi and konbu shio to taste. You can add seasoning in the last step but I prefer to add earlier to let the flavour absorbed in grains.
3. Combine sashimi with corn starch solution, mix well to coat. Then, add sashimi ONLY into the porridge and discard excess starch. Add in ginger.
4. Cook for a minute or two, turn the heat off and it is ready to serve.
5. Transfer to a bowl, garnish with spring onion and serve warm.

Cook's note:

Yes, I did mention about the trick it is hidden in the step actually. The trick is to coat the seafood pieces with corn starch solution, very thin coating to maintain the shape and texture of fish especially but not starchy at all when eat. I learned this trick from a Teochew porridge hawker in Singapore many years back.

This is the amount of leftover sashimi I used, few slices of ginger and a stalk of spring onion from my vegetable patch. Sashimi was for sushi, we had hand-roll sushi (temaki) with sashimi, avocado and cucumber sticks. Rolled as we eat. John had mostly vegetable rolls and Sean simply loves salmon and tuna sashimi so we ended up with leftover of snapper, squid and octopus.

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This is my first autumn in Japan I am amazed by the all those beautiful colours seen almost everywhere. I just could not hold myself back to share some photos with you guys. Photos appended below are some closed-up Japanese maple (momiji) in my in-law's yard. 

And, this is one of the photos I shared on MK Facebook page check out my page for more if keen. It is taken on 30 Nov 2012, at Nara Park, Japan. When we were there we saw a few couples having their pre-wedding photo shooting, beautiful place and couples but I think brides must be very cold then.

If you are planning to visit Kyoto in Japan, spring (between 2nd to 3rd week of April) and autumn (from mid-Nov to 1st week of Dec) are two best periods to visit. Spring for sakura and other beautiful flowers, and autumn for maples and more.